Wheels Coming Off GOP Wagon

Once upon a time the tea party was fairly relevant. Not any more. Once upon a time Republicans were turning themselves inside out to try to tame a supremely popular President they both feared and hated, a President who was willing, once upon a time, to do a little stretching to accommodate both sides of the aisle. Not any more.

America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists – which is exactly why President Obama is spot on when he said that he won’t negotiate with Republicans over the debt ceiling, will not grant them anything on their “wish list”(which consists of all of Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan’s plans and policies, with a little pot-sweetener of “major perks for coal companies and Wall Street banks, alongside healthcare and social service cuts and a one-year delay in the implementation of Obamacare”).

“I will not negotiate on anything when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States of America.”

President Obama went on to say, “No Congress before this one has ever, ever, in history, been irresponsible enough to threaten default, to threaten an economic shutdown, to suggest America not pay its bills, just to try to blackmail a president into giving them some concessions on issues that have nothing to do with a budget . . . we’re not a deadbeat nation, we don’t run out on our tab . . . .”

As President Obama correctly noted, Republicans are engaged in an “unprecedented effort” to scorch the earth in order to get their way on “completely unrelated policy items.” They’re terrified that the Affordable Care Act will go over big with Americans; even Ted Cruz conceded that they have a limited window of time to derail Obamacare before people, you know, like it, and it becomes too politically toxic for Republicans to try to strip them of it.

President Obama has set his heels:

“We’re not going to submit to this kind of total irresponsibility. Congress needs to pay our bills on time. Congress needs to pass a budget on time. Congress needs to put an end to governing from crisis to crisis. Our focus as a country should be on creating new jobs and growing our economy and helping young people learn, and restoring security for hard-working middle-class families . . . If Republicans do not like the law, they can go through the regular channels and processes to try to change it. That’s why we have elections.”

About Julie Driscoll

Julie is a 25-year veteran legal assistant in the Chicago legal community and, although always passionate about various causes, is a recent – within the past several years – entrant into the field of political activism. For a year and a half she was a writer for News Hounds, a website that is dedicated to critical analysis of Fox News (“We Watch Fox So You Don’t Have To”), is currently the Chicago Liberal Examiner for Examiner.com, is involved with the media side of the local MoveOn.org chapter, and runs multiple large political groups on Facebook. Although she began her activism through writing, she has more recently become a “boots on the ground” activist, having attended many protests on behalf of the unions in Madison, Wisconsin, Lansing, Michigan, and Chicago, as well as a rally in Benton Harbor, Michigan, advocating on behalf of the residents whose town has been taken over by the Emergency Financial Manager appointed by the Governor. Her causes are people-oriented . . . and her belief is that people need to be protected before dollars are counted. Her motto: Make sure people are safe, healthy, housed and fed – and screw the cost.

Comments

Yeah right! That’s our good-ole-USA bottom line. The USA has absolutely got to pay its corporate bills on time! No negotiating with terrorists – at least on that!
Now, as Mr Obama says, let’s be polite and not technical or pedantic. Let’s not get upset or distracted by inconveniences, such as what has happened in Syria, Iran, N Korea and elsewhere. Like, when thug regimes and groups use chemical weapons on their own people or hang protesters or kill Americans or violate their own treaty commitments. Yes, we make it a point to ‘talk informally’ with them. But you see we do this politically correctly: we ‘talk informally’ but we don’t ‘negotiate’, and we politely call them ‘militants’ but never ‘terrorists’.

The Body Politic

Dave Zirin: She is our Jordan. She is our Jim Brown. She is our Babe Ruth, calling his shots. She is no longer content to dodge bullets, but understands how to stop them. Serena is that rare athlete who has not only mastered her sport. She’s harnessed it.